Imran hits Shahbaz for 176 to become Pakistan's PM

Islamabad - Promises a captain's innings against corruption as country ushers in new order.

Imran Khan promised "strict accountability" in his first speech in parliament as Pakistan's 22nd prime minister on Friday as his voice drowned out opposition protesters' chants of "unacceptable" and "Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif".
Despite winning the July 25 election, Imran had to face-off with the opposition's prime ministerial candidate, beating PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif by 176 to 96 votes in polling held in the National Assembly on Friday. Earlier, the stock market reversed a four-day losing streak and gained close to 500 points in anticipation of the PM's formal election, expressing confidence in Imran's promises of market reforms and economic turnaround.
Opposition parties tried to gather the numbers to upset Imran's chances in the National Assembly vote as they formed a combined front against alleged rigging.
But cracks soon emerged in the fragile coalition, primarily over PPP's refusal to accept Shahbaz Sharif as candidate for prime minister.
And when the PPP decided not to vote 'on principle', much of the local press read it as another wedge that the PTI created into the opposition. Imran also promised to hold everybody "who looted the country's wealth. and destroyed the future of our children" accountable, and ruled out any NRO-like (National Reconciliation Ordinance) deal with politicians facing corruption charges. He was referring to the controversial 2007 ordinance issued by former president Pervez Musharraf that granted amnesty to politicians and bureaucrats accused of corruption, embezzlement and money laundering.
That settles speculation, building since the election, about a possible deal to let Nawaz off the hook yet again. Yet, now that Imran has secured the premiership, he must begin delivering on his tall promises; as so aptly reminded by Bilawal Bhutto. However successful he is in prosecuting former leaders, he will now have to create the millions of jobs, hundreds of thousands of houses, schools and hospitals just as he claimed all the way on the campaign trail. 
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• Pakistan